It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "Frank's Back in Business"Review

The last time we saw Frank he was proving to Dee that his brain hadn't turned to soup by having The Gang traumatically dig up the remains of her and Dennis' dead, rotting mother. So with his mental acuity getting an unofficially clean (yet demented) bill of health, Frank headed back to the business world this week to try and save his old company, Atwater Capital, from going under through the use of anachronistic and pig-headed strategies from the '80s.

"Frank's Back in Business" has several things working for it, but overall I felt it really shined as an episode that made great use of the entire Gang. Sure, Frank and Dennis sort of got the big, key moments, but the rest of the players had some wickedly funny scenes too. From Dennis being prepared to have sex with a small Asian boy just for the thrill of his charade, to Dee's Canadian/Fargo-ish accent to Mac and Charlie BOTH getting fired from their fake positions and then rebounding with Fight Milk, a "Crowtein" drink for bodyguards, this episode really cooked.

I think the one of the funniest parts of this one was the fact that Charlie didn't really get fired by Frank because he was an incompetent lunatic, as one might have expected. No, he got the boot because he actually wanted to be a part of a company that produces something. An actual product for people to use and enjoy. Yes, his ideas are naturally asinine, but I enjoy the fact that he just wasn't able to get on board with Frank's old-school CEO training, which involved racquetball, shopping for Rolexes and eating sushi off "some Jap broad's t**s." Mac, or should I say entrepreneurial bodyguard Vic Vinegar, basically got the heave-ho from Dennis for the same reason. Because of his laundry list of absurd money-making schemes.

Dennis is on a real tear this season, showcasing his completely abnormal psychosis like never before. He's always been the more-intelligent "sleazy" one, but this year they've really air-dropped him into psychopath territory. And watching him get close to Mac and Dee and whisper "We're gonna get off together," while biting his lip, was pretty much the pinnacle of his deranged, manipulative mind. All because he was impersonating a guy named Brian who left his wallet in Paddy's (and can totally "suck a boner" because of it) and the entire act of "wearing another man's skin" somehow translates, in his mind, into some erotic game. Of course, once Mac hears this he's out. But Dee goes along for the ride, hoping to "get off" like Dennis. Only to, of course, fail. Because she's Dee.

At first, even though Frank might have been a business genius back in the day, my first instinct was that the board of directors at Atwater had asked Frank back because they knew he was a nut and would somehow sink the company in a way that they wanted. But, truthfully, they wanted him back to complain about minorities in the office and fire employees for not being able to fix a paper jam in the printer. "Did I just do you job for you???" Then, in the end, Frank wound up being doubly-shrewed, somehow dismantling the company and selling it off himself. All in a day's work I suppose when you're "cuttin' the crust off a s*** sandwich."

In the end, as expected, all the guys wound up getting what they wanted (if you consider climaxing over the sight of a dead, severed finger a "win") while Dee got left in the lurch. Which is typical, but also a sign that all the planets in the Always Sunny universe are still in harmony with one another.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and on IGN at mattfowler. No other choice you will ever make will be as easy and render such a great reward.

Great

Frank got to be both crazy and shrewd on this very funny episode of Always Sunny.